Features - QOTW: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone or Windows Phone?

[KeyboardDemon]

Something to cater for those that hate to follow the norm but don't realise that by doing so they have become the norm.

I agree with this, reminds me of the quote, "I want to be different, same as everybody else".

I'm guessing that this is a "policy" issue rather than a technical one, seeing as the unlocked S2 has had "official" ICS for a while.

Yeah, we have bespoke software that has been created for us, this makes use of Android's biggest strength, it's open and cheap to develop for and our developer only develops for the S2 to ensure all his customer's get a fully functional working product.

I spend most of the time at the command line anyway.

I know a few people that use Linux as their main OS and they all tend to spend more time in command line than the GUI, I learnt to use a computer using DOS and personally I've had enough of it, give me the choice of a keyboard and mouse combination over command line and I'll pick the GUI nearly everytime.

what I want from a desktop UI is the same as that of a phone - flexibility, speed and no need to sit and think "how am I supposed to do X?" (because it's obvious).

The very reason I don't like command line.

I did find this with my Android phone as well, that it's great it has an almost infinite level of user customisation options, but sometimes it's not so user friendly when it comes to trying to set these options, like putting shortcuts to contacts on my desktop, I could put them on there but it took a long time searching online to find out how I can make it so that a single touch would dial the contact I wanted to speak to instead of going through a series of nested options menus.

[Hicks12]

Going to say it, favourite OS by far is Windows Mobile 6.5.5! I must be wrong in the head but it seriously made a great impact on me, after using my HD2 with the latest WM and an nrgy rom i couldnt leave it, i was dead set on sticking with the HD2/WM, it was brilliant, fast reliable and the UI was solid along with everything being in THE RIGHT PLACE, i always find most GUI its not simple navigation anymore you have to delve deep in to the menus just to find if its the right place for that setting/file (android main offender here), also battery life was AMAZING, the only reason i have an Optimus 2x now is that the HD2 unfortunately met its grave after a run in with a concrete tile and a fail repair .

The O2x was brand new (maybe a month old at the time) and the SGS2 and sensation were a few months off and with preorders of £35+ a month i didnt want to consider them! I ended up getting the O2x for a very solid price and in the end it will work out paying £168 for the phone over 2 years, excellent stuff really as at the time i dont think even a wildfire was that cheap!.

I dont like my O2x as much as my HD2 but it is a really good phone, the hardware side is stupidly solid and infact makes me want LG again (always been a strong fan, all my LG phones survived to this day) the downfall of the O2x is software, it has its ups and downs and my frustration is that LG and Nvidia both pass the blame between each other, they both suck at supporting the community... we were meant to get GB at launch IIRC and it kept getting delayed and delayed, took ages and now ICS was due Q2 now apparently moved to Q3 and yet other devices (lower end) from LG have already got ICS in the last few weeks. Cyanogen mod 9 would work fully if they had HW acceraltion support but lack the drivers etc, without HWA its still very good but theres no camera or HD video support.

After trying CM9 for a bit (getting fed up with it after a week due to now camer and video, annoying when you just need to take the odd photo!) ICS is much better than other versions of android and its making it much closer to taking the throne from my WM love, i just wish i could have a reliable version of it.

Battery life is also something android is dire at and i hope it is improved in the future

[crossy]

I dont like my O2x as much as my HD2 but it is a really good phone, the hardware side is stupidly solid and infact makes me want LG again (always been a strong fan, all my LG phones survived to this day) the downfall of the O2x is software, it has its ups and downs and my frustration is that LG and Nvidia both pass the blame between each other, they both suck at supporting the community. Cyanogen mod 9 would work fully if they had HW acceraltion support but lack the drivers etc, without HWA its still very good but theres no camera or HD video support. ... After trying CM9 for a bit (getting fed up with it after a week due to now camer and video, annoying when you just need to take the odd photo!) ICS is much better than other versions of android and its making it much closer to taking the throne from my WM love, i just wish i could have a reliable version of it.

Interesting perspective (and especially the bits I cut out) and I'm going to agree - I wouldn't consider any phone by LG because of their poor track-record (continuing) with support. All the Android manufacturers were the same, but at least now some of them (especially Sony) seem to have woken up and realised that merely doing one minor(?) update in the life of a 'droid phone is a sure way to get the community to hate you. NVidia on the other hand, I would have thought should have known better!

ICS is good - not least because it passes my "is what I want to do obvious?" test, not something you could necessarily say about the earlier versions. The speed increases were nice too.

Of course, the problem with updates isn't one likely to affect iPhone owners - damn them! Apple - whatever my criticisms of them and their products might be elsewhere - got that part exactly right (and continue to do so) and any Android phone (even my SIII) is definitely lagging behind.

Battery life is also something android is dire at and i hope it is improved in the future

ICS - from my experience - also improves this. At least my Asus Transformer now gets longer from a charge than it did with Honeycomb. Battery life on my new Galaxy SIII is pretty acceptable - especially when I drop it into "power save" mode. Then again, that puppy has a mucking great battery - so I'd expect longer than a day between charges. GPS usage still seems to play havoc with it though.

[The Hand]

Windows Phone, though I'm on a Windows Mobile 6.1 device at the moment, lol. I'll be on a WP8 device when it comes out.

[Hicks12]

We are on the same page then crossy , ICS is exactly the same for me everything is where i want/logic says it should be and its a major plus, im just stuck waiting for a solid version for me to go to . If LG can actually bring in ICS before end of Q3 it will restore my faith mostly, because they have actually been providing updated GB roms as of late, just a few days ago a new version was released apparently some improvements there .

If i was to get another LG phone (and mostlikely will purely on price, i cant afford to spend £25+on a phone) i would ensure i avoid Nvidia, it seems no tegra 2 phones have had an ICS port yet which makes me more inclined that its Nvidia taking the mickey here and LG have said that they cant release Nvidia sources due to them not being licensed under the GPL so its quite possible LG is stuck between a rock and a hard place, having to cut staff due to expenses in the mobile sector and then being told you cant let others fix the flaws you first have to make the build from Nvidia sources and hope people will reverse engineer it .

Ill probably make sure its a qualcomm device next time should hopefully sort those issues out .

Yeah apple users get that bonus but really the hardware isnt there to keep up, i doubt anyone is using an iPhone 1 with ios5 atm, it gets dropped after 2 major releases (if i remember rightly?),and if its the same as the ipod touch i recall users having to pay a fee (think small?) to upgrade, i can certainly see the attraction to apple but for me personally i see the pros but then immediately get hit by the cons every damn time, i wont have itunes infecting my PC i despise most digital music downloads i prefer a cd ripped in FLAC or other lossless methods, and plus itunes just takes to much resources. Add to the fact it costs so much for the device and you cant use external storage(microsd), i can never do that as my 32gb microsd card cost me £13... i would not sacrifice the price .

That is just me, sorry ive started going off on one haha! ICS is the future, as soon as i can join it .